Dorothy Rodham, the mother of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has died at the age of 92.
“Her story was a quintessentially American one, largely because she wrote it herself,” a statement from the Clinton family reads. “She overcame abandonment and hardship as a young girl to become the remarkable woman she was – a warm, generous and strong woman; an intellectual; a woman who told a great joke and always got the joke; an extraordinary friend and, most of all, a loving wife, mother and grandmother.”
The statement notes that Rodham died surrounded by family shortly after midnight.
On Monday, the State Department announced that Secretary Clinton had canceled a planned visit toTurkey and Britain, citing her mother’s illness.
The family is planning a private memorial service and is requesting donations in lieu of flowers to the George Washington Hospital and the Heifer Project, a humanitarian organization.